ALEX Lesson Plans

Title: A Good Reason to be Mad
Description:
Students will be able to apply problem solving strategies similar to problems they will encounter while reading Romeo and Juliet. This lesson should be used as a pre-reading activity before reading the play. Students will rank reasons (good and bad) to be angry.
This is a College- and Career-Ready Standards showcase lesson plan.
Standard(s): [ELA2013] (9) 8: Analyze how an author draws on and transforms source material in a specific work (e.g., how Shakespeare treats a theme or topic from Ovid or the Bible or how a later author draws on a play by Shakespeare). [RL.9-10.9]

Subject: English Language Arts (9) Title: A Good Reason to be MadDescription: Students will be able to apply problem solving strategies similar to problems they will encounter while reading Romeo and Juliet. This lesson should be used as a pre-reading activity before reading the play. Students will rank reasons (good and bad) to be angry.
This is a College- and Career-Ready Standards showcase lesson plan.

Title: Romeo and Juliet "What if......?"
Description:
Student groups will be assigned separate acts of Romeo and Juliet where they will read and interpret the original version; then, remake it using a modern spin but keeping the same basic plot.
Standard(s):

Subject: English Language Arts (9) Title: Romeo and Juliet "What if......?"Description: Student groups will be assigned separate acts of Romeo and Juliet where they will read and interpret the original version; then, remake it using a modern spin but keeping the same basic plot.

Title: Literary Elements in Literature
Description:
This lesson is applicable to any story or novel in literature. The students will be introduced to twelve literary elements through a podcast. They will then be divided into small groups to complete activities involving story and literary elements.
Standard(s): [ELA2013] (10) 15: Determine an author's point of view or purpose in a text and analyze how an author uses rhetoric to advance that point of view or purpose. [RI.9-10.6]

Subject: English Language Arts (9 - 10), or Technology Education (9 - 12) Title: Literary Elements in LiteratureDescription: This lesson is applicable to any story or novel in literature. The students will be introduced to twelve literary elements through a podcast. They will then be divided into small groups to complete activities involving story and literary elements.

Title: Producing Poetic Podcasts (Hey, That's Alliteration!)
Description:
In this culminating lesson for a poetry unit, students will create a video podcast that summarizes a specific poem, analyzes the poet's use of literary elements, and infers the meaning of the poem (theme). The podcast must use a talk show format to discuss the literary elements and theme. The talk show may feature the students or animated characters using xtranormal.com.
Standard(s): [TC2] CA2 (9-12) 12: Use digital tools to publish curriculum-related content.

Subject: Business, Management, and Administration (9 - 12), or English Language Arts (9), or Technology Education (9 - 12) Title: Producing Poetic Podcasts (Hey, That's Alliteration!)Description: In this culminating lesson for a poetry unit, students will create a video podcast that summarizes a specific poem, analyzes the poet's use of literary elements, and infers the meaning of the poem (theme). The podcast must use a talk show format to discuss the literary elements and theme. The talk show may feature the students or animated characters using xtranormal.com.

Title: Shakespeare's England
Description:
As a preface to Romeo and Juliet, mixed-ability student groups (chosen by teacher) will complete a technology-based lesson on Shakespeare's England. Students will research topics on Shakespeare's life and Elizabethan England. Upon completion of their research, groups will compile, prepare, and present their information to classmates in a PowerPoint presentation.
Standard(s): [ELA2013] (9) 34: Make strategic use of digital media (e.g., textual, graphical, audio, visual, and interactive elements) in presentations to enhance understanding of findings, reasoning, and evidence and to add interest. [SL.9-10.5]

Subject: English Language Arts (9), or Technology Education (9 - 12) Title: Shakespeare's EnglandDescription: As a preface to Romeo and Juliet, mixed-ability student groups (chosen by teacher) will complete a technology-based lesson on Shakespeare's England. Students will research topics on Shakespeare's life and Elizabethan England. Upon completion of their research, groups will compile, prepare, and present their information to classmates in a PowerPoint presentation.

Thinkfinity Lesson Plans

Title: Shakespeare's ''Macbeth'': Fear and the ''Dagger of the Mind''
Description:
This EDSITEment lesson is designed to help students understand how Shakespeare's language dramatizes one such emotion: fear. Students work in small groups to perform the so-called banquet scene, in which the newly-crowned Macbeth, while entertaining the lords of Scotland, encounters a ghost only he can see. The twist here is that while there are opportunities for students to analyze Shakespeare's language, the performance itself is done without words. The wordless performance means that students need to develop physical equivalents for the clues to Macbeth's state of mind that are embedded in Shakespeare's poetry.
Standard(s): [ELA2013] (12) 3: Analyze the impact of the author's choices regarding how to develop and relate elements of a story or drama (e.g., where a story is set, how the action is ordered, how the characters are introduced and developed). [RL.11-12.3]

Subject: Language ArtsTitle: Shakespeare's ''Macbeth'': Fear and the ''Dagger of the Mind''Description: This EDSITEment lesson is designed to help students understand how Shakespeare's language dramatizes one such emotion: fear. Students work in small groups to perform the so-called banquet scene, in which the newly-crowned Macbeth, while entertaining the lords of Scotland, encounters a ghost only he can see. The twist here is that while there are opportunities for students to analyze Shakespeare's language, the performance itself is done without words. The wordless performance means that students need to develop physical equivalents for the clues to Macbeth's state of mind that are embedded in Shakespeare's poetry.Thinkfinity Partner: EDSITEmentGrade Span: 9,10,11,12

Title: Audio Broadcasts and Podcasts: Oral Storytelling and Dramatization
Description:
Students create their own audio dramatization of a text they have read, after exploring Orson Welles' 1938 broadcast of H. G. Wells' War of the Worlds.
Standard(s): [ELA2013] (12) 33: Make strategic use of digital media (e.g., textual, graphical, audio, visual, and interactive elements) in presentations to enhance understanding of findings, reasoning, and evidence and to add interest. [SL.11-12.5]

Title: Making Connections to Myth and Folktale: The Many Ways to Rainy Mountain
Description:
Following the model of N. Scott Momaday's The Way To Rainy Mountain, students write three-voice narratives based on Kiowa folktales, an interview with an Elder, and personal connections to theme.
Standard(s): [ELA2013] (9) 30: Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on Grade 9 topics, texts, and issues, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively. [SL.9-10.1]

Subject: Language ArtsTitle: Making Connections to Myth and Folktale: The Many Ways to Rainy Mountain Description: Following the model of N. Scott Momaday's The Way To Rainy Mountain, students write three-voice narratives based on Kiowa folktales, an interview with an Elder, and personal connections to theme.Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThinkGrade Span: 9,10,11,12

Web Resources

Informational Materials

Title: Stalking Shakespeare
Description:
This website contains a brief summary of Shakespeare's life. It also contains links to related BBC radio broadcasts about Shakespeare.
Standard(s): [ELA2013] (9) 8: Analyze how an author draws on and transforms source material in a specific work (e.g., how Shakespeare treats a theme or topic from Ovid or the Bible or how a later author draws on a play by Shakespeare). [RL.9-10.9]

Thinkfinity Learning Activities

Title: Poet Robert Burns was born in 1759.
Description:
Students read examples of traditional Scottish ballads and use this information to write and perform their own ballads.
Standard(s): [ELA2013] (12) 22: Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. (Grade-specific expectations for writing types are defined in standards 19-21 above.) [W.11-12.4]

Subject: Language ArtsTitle: Poet Robert Burns was born in 1759.Description: Students read examples of traditional Scottish ballads and use this information to write and perform their own ballads.Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThinkGrade Span: 7,8,9,10,11,12

Title: Artist Pablo Picasso was born on this day in 1881.
Description:
Students view a Picasso piece, write their impressions, and share. Students can create their own Picasso-style art using the interactive Picassohead.
Standard(s): [ELA2013] (9) 30: Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on Grade 9 topics, texts, and issues, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively. [SL.9-10.1]

Subject: Language ArtsTitle: Artist Pablo Picasso was born on this day in 1881.Description: Students view a Picasso piece, write their impressions, and share. Students can create their own Picasso-style art using the interactive Picassohead.Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThinkGrade Span: 5,6,7,8,9,10